Latest plan for Rowan Tree Inn

Thursday July 2nd 2020

Rowantree-Pub-in-Mayfield


Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp

A pub which has remained closed since it was the scene of a brutal killing several years ago could be turned back into a residential house.

Plans to restore the former Rowan Tree Inn in Mayfield back to a detached property have been lodged with Midlothian Council.

It is the latest proposal for the building, thought to be the oldest in Mayfield and Easthouses and which was originally known as Mayfield Farmhouse.

It had been operating with the Rowan Tree Inn on the ground floor and a flat in the first floor until 2013, when Craig Essen was fatally stabbed in the pub.

Dean Williams was jailed for 10 and a half years for fatally stabbing Mr Essen, who lived in Dalkeith.

Last year, Mayfield and Easthouses Community Council opposed plans to have the building demolished and up to 16 flats built on the site.

They called for the building to be preserved and supported an alternative application for the lower half of the building to be turned into a community facility and the upstairs – formerly the pub manager’s accommodation – to be a separate flat.

Planning officials rejected the demolition proposals for the site and approved the community facility alternative; however, the latest plans would now see the ground floor merged with the upstairs accommodation to return the building to a single dwelling.

The plans, which have been lodged by Mrs Iris Taylor, from Mayfield, who also lodged the successful application for the ground floor to be converted into a community facility, have been published on the council website for consultation.

The application says the plan now is that “the ground floor and first floor are reinstated as one residential unit as it historically was prior to becoming a public house and associated rental flat”.

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